SIR LADYBUG

Sir Ladybug, a shy bug with a sword, enjoys playing video games and baking cakes but isn’t the type to turn down a quest.

While on a morning excursion with friends Pell (a roly-poly) and Sterling (a snail), Sir Ladybug is approached by a troubled, beetle-appearing bug whose caterpillar friend needs rescuing from a monster. Bolstered by Sir Ladybug’s call for courage, the group of friends embark on their journey to face the deadly creature only to find the monster is really a hungry chickadee in search of its next meal. With some creative problem-solving, however, Sir Ladybug and company put things right over the course of the book as new friendships blossom and characters celebrate one another’s strengths. The chalky, spring-colored illustrations are accompanied by asterisked notes playfully defining terms such as squire and herald and include opening pages for chapters and poetic interludes. These all work together to create a vibrant, segmented graphic novel that can be consumed in pieces or all at once by early readers as desired. Visual humor, tongue-in-cheek declarations, and knock-knock jokes add to the fun absurdity of a story that subverts the natural phenomenon of a bird eating a bug. The story is comprised of an entirely animal cast, with all characters but Sir Ladybug left ungendered.

An endearing testament to the joys of friendship.